ROYAL Bank of Scotland is selling a €286 million (£247m) portfolio of Spanish commercial property loans and assets as part of disposals and business run-downs totalling £120 billion so far.
The buyer of the Spanish assets is Perella Weinberg Real Estate Fund, RBS said yesterday as the bank's chief executive Stephen Hester continues to dispose of non-core assets under a programme to strengthen the balance sheet and move out of part-taxpayer ownership.
The proceeds of the Spanish sale are in cash and RBS, in which the government has an 83 per cent stake, said yesterday: "The disposal represents a further step in RBS's plan to run off or dispose of the assets within the non-core division.
"Overall funded assets in non-core had reduced to £138bn from the original funded asset base of £258bn."
Hester began his disposal programme in early 2009, shortly after predecessor Sir Fred Goodwin was ousted following an expansionary strategy that eventually led to record RBS losses of £24bn.
Other non-core businesses sold by the Scottish bank include its 4.3 per cent Bank of China stake and its retail and commercial operations in that country; Linea Directa in Spain; Sempra metals to energy commodities business; operations in Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Pakistan and India; and 300 UK branches at the behest of the European Commission in return for RBS's £45bn taxpayer bailout.
The group has also exited asset management, as well as its retail and commercial businesses in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia, and wholesale banking operations in the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.
Analysts said yesterday that the Spanish property assets sale was predictable, particularly given the severe economic problems the country has suffered. That has sparked intermittent fears Spain might require an Irish or Greek-style European Union and IMF taxpayer bailout.
"Spanish real estate is hardly a core RBS business, and you could see why Hester would want the distraction out of the way, particularly given Spain's problems," one analyst said.
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